Venus Chueh
Persuasive Essa The Boy With the Striped Pajamas is a book about the relationship between a boy called Bruno, who is the son of the commandant of Auschwitz, and a boy called Shmuel, from the concentration camps during the Holocaust. People dispute whether this book should be taught in high school or not, since it is not actually realistic and few things that happened in the book will not actually happen in the real world. High school students should read this book. This book was written based on the history, we can read and introspect the tragic history and learn to prevent this miserable event to happen. This book also gave us lots of ideas of what the life was during the war and how the Germans reacted with the Jewish.
There are large amounts of evidence in the book of how the Germans and Jews interacted. Although this book is not realistic, some parts of the book were still true, and base on readers knowledge, they could actually vary them. Therefore, by giving the setting of the story from the book,we can still understand the roughly impressions of how the holocaust was like. For instance, Jews has been forced to work and to wear the striped uniform. They lived in the crowded concentration camps and they were usually dirty, smelly, poor and starving. Also, soldiers were yelling at the Jews, and those Jews were never been respected; the stubborn teacher taught Bruno and his sister solid knowledge, brainwashing them that the Germans was the best; and those posters on Gretel’s room’s wall, showing how the propaganda has been deep influence their mind. At last but not least, Holocaust had also affected commandant’s family, too. Mother was absolutely against the whole concept and so did the grandma. They both had a fight with father to show their protest. But still, the worst thing happened. Commandant’s son was died in the gas chamber with his best friend, Shmuel. For this reason, it has made the book symbolic, since it seems like a little revenge for the Jewish people.
Jew’s condition sounds pretty woeful, yet we can find out there are actually some people sympathize them. Like Bruno, after moving to the new house, he met his best friend, Shmuel, beside the concentration camp. They chat for all kinds of things during the time Bruno visited Shmuel. Sometimes Bruno invited him to his house, and sometimes brought food for him. Although Bruno was the commandant’s son, he was still being really kind to Shmuel. In addition, mother and grandmother are another example. They were really mad at father’s position. Once, mother had a big fight with father after she found out that dad had buried some of the Jewish body, she protested to him, and wanted to move out “Out-With” with the children. On the other hand, grandma was unwilling to attend the celebration of father’s new position. She stormed out of the house, and got really mad. Those three Germans in the story are the three people that felt bad for the Jews. They sympathize them, and showed their protest. In the time of a trend that Germans hate Jew’s was so popular, they just be themselves, and did not influence by someone else. They are the models, they knew the justice, and they just did what they think is right no matter the consequences. Students can read this book and learn from the three people, figure out how they did not have any impact by the trend in that miserable era.
Since it was written based on history, the students can learn some facts that the book implied and make some deeper thinking. At the end, Bruno was died because of the holocaust. He was immature, running out of the house and met the friend that he was not allowed to meet. He was also innocent and knew nothing about his father’s job. And those led him to the worst consequences – gathering with the people that his father considered not “human”, and died with them. That is the most interesting part of the book – the ending, and was absolutely shocking. The holocaust was like that, unselectively killed the people in the concentration camp. Anyone being targeted will be killed. Therefore, that is why the commandant could not imagine that his son was actually killed under his own governance. We can introspect and learn that how a history have change our modern life. If there is no holocaust, probably people in modern time still did not learn to be respect other people, and there are still a bunch of people in the world races, and view others inferior. After students done reading this book, they may realize and make some changes in life. This book may have big impact to them that they will know the importance of respecting others, and understand that “everyone is equal.”
Amounts of history themes let us roughly understand what the life was during the war. The deep thinking that the students make while they are reading was also significant to their life. This miserable history should not be happened again, and human in the world should try to prevent it. Even though students are not someone that can make big changes for the world, they still can care about this issues and do something important by understanding the life lessons in the book. We should be kind to our enemy, and never fight back to show our high upbringing. For those reasons, high school students are worth to read the book. This is a book that can help the world somehow, and a book that may changes the students’ life.
Venus Chueh
Persuasive Essa
The Boy With the Striped Pajamas is a book about the relationship between a boy called Bruno, who is the son of the commandant of Auschwitz, and a boy called Shmuel, from the concentration camps during the Holocaust. People dispute whether this book should be taught in high school or not, since it is not actually realistic and few things that happened in the book will not actually happen in the real world. High school students should read this book. This book was written based on the history, we can read and introspect the tragic history and learn to prevent this miserable event to happen. This book also gave us lots of ideas of what the life was during the war and how the Germans reacted with the Jewish.
There are large amounts of evidence in the book of how the Germans and Jews interacted. Although this book is not realistic, some parts of the book were still true, and base on readers knowledge, they could actually vary them. Therefore, by giving the setting of the story from the book,we can still understand the roughly impressions of how the holocaust was like. For instance, Jews has been forced to work and to wear the striped uniform. They lived in the crowded concentration camps and they were usually dirty, smelly, poor and starving. Also, soldiers were yelling at the Jews, and those Jews were never been respected; the stubborn teacher taught Bruno and his sister solid knowledge, brainwashing them that the Germans was the best; and those posters on Gretel’s room’s wall, showing how the propaganda has been deep influence their mind. At last but not least, Holocaust had also affected commandant’s family, too. Mother was absolutely against the whole concept and so did the grandma. They both had a fight with father to show their protest. But still, the worst thing happened. Commandant’s son was died in the gas chamber with his best friend, Shmuel. For this reason, it has made the book symbolic, since it seems like a little revenge for the Jewish people.
Jew’s condition sounds pretty woeful, yet we can find out there are actually some people sympathize them. Like Bruno, after moving to the new house, he met his best friend, Shmuel, beside the concentration camp. They chat for all kinds of things during the time Bruno visited Shmuel. Sometimes Bruno invited him to his house, and sometimes brought food for him. Although Bruno was the commandant’s son, he was still being really kind to Shmuel. In addition, mother and grandmother are another example. They were really mad at father’s position. Once, mother had a big fight with father after she found out that dad had buried some of the Jewish body, she protested to him, and wanted to move out “Out-With” with the children. On the other hand, grandma was unwilling to attend the celebration of father’s new position. She stormed out of the house, and got really mad. Those three Germans in the story are the three people that felt bad for the Jews. They sympathize them, and showed their protest. In the time of a trend that Germans hate Jew’s was so popular, they just be themselves, and did not influence by someone else. They are the models, they knew the justice, and they just did what they think is right no matter the consequences. Students can read this book and learn from the three people, figure out how they did not have any impact by the trend in that miserable era.
Since it was written based on history, the students can learn some facts that the book implied and make some deeper thinking. At the end, Bruno was died because of the holocaust. He was immature, running out of the house and met the friend that he was not allowed to meet. He was also innocent and knew nothing about his father’s job. And those led him to the worst consequences – gathering with the people that his father considered not “human”, and died with them. That is the most interesting part of the book – the ending, and was absolutely shocking. The holocaust was like that, unselectively killed the people in the concentration camp. Anyone being targeted will be killed. Therefore, that is why the commandant could not imagine that his son was actually killed under his own governance. We can introspect and learn that how a history have change our modern life. If there is no holocaust, probably people in modern time still did not learn to be respect other people, and there are still a bunch of people in the world races, and view others inferior. After students done reading this book, they may realize and make some changes in life. This book may have big impact to them that they will know the importance of respecting others, and understand that “everyone is equal.”
Amounts of history themes let us roughly understand what the life was during the war. The deep thinking that the students make while they are reading was also significant to their life. This miserable history should not be happened again, and human in the world should try to prevent it. Even though students are not someone that can make big changes for the world, they still can care about this issues and do something important by understanding the life lessons in the book. We should be kind to our enemy, and never fight back to show our high upbringing. For those reasons, high school students are worth to read the book. This is a book that can help the world somehow, and a book that may changes the students’ life.